Receive the latest new-england updates in your inbox

Baseball Team With Blind Athletes Plays Hard

The Boston Renegades baseball team is made up of blind players. They're proving their doubters wrong - and swinging for the fences. (Published Saturday, July 8, 2017)

The Boston Renegades just won New England's largest baseball tournament for the blind and visually impaired Saturday afternoon in Woburn. The team went 3-0 in the “Beast of the East” tournament, facing off against the best squads from New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.

These men and women play a variation on America’s past time called “beep baseball.” The difference is, the ball and all the bases make sounds, to help the blind and visually impaired athletes on the field, track their movements.

Even though all the players here are legally blind, how much they can actually see varies from person to person. So they all have to wear a blind fold to level the playing field.

For founder John Oliveira, it’s more than a competition. He says the camaraderie and team building also helps off the field.

The Boston Renegades just won New England's largest baseball
tournament for the blind and visually impaired Saturday afternoon in Woburn.
The team went 3-0 in the “Beast of the East” tournament, facing off against the
best squads from New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.

These men and
women play a variation on America’s past time called “beep baseball.” The difference
is, the ball and all the bases make sounds, to help the blind and visually
impaired athletes on the field, track their movements.

Even though all
the players here are legally blind, how much they can actually see varies from
person to person. So they all have to wear a blind fold to level the playing
field.

For founder John
Oliveira, it’s more than a competition. He says the camaraderie and team
building also helps off the field.

“ it’s a great
source of support,” says Oliveira.

The Boston Renegades will be
representing New England in the National Beep Baseball Association World Series
in Florida at the end of the month.